The high and soft focaccia is an exceptional leavened product. You can enjoy this delicacy in its simple or stuffed version.
A little yeast and a few hours of rest will give you a dough that you will make over and over again. You can also use this high and soft focaccia as a bread substitute.
Meanwhile, I’ll show it to you in all its height and softness in the photo below.
I suggest you also take a look at these other little recipes I list below
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 7 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 8
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
Let’s see the ingredients to make this simple high and soft focaccia
- water (400g slightly warm)
- fresh brewer's yeast (5g)
- extra virgin olive oil (50g + 20g to sprinkle on the surface)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- flour (600g flour)
- fine salt (10g)
Tools
I prepared the high and soft focaccia with the stand mixer but if you don’t have one, you can easily prepare the dough by hand.
I love kneading, but when I’m in a hurry I help myself with the mixer. So, if you don’t have one, you will need a bowl or a board for kneading, a scale to measure the ingredients, a fork to mix. Nothing else, our hands will do the rest
Steps
Let’s see the steps to make the focaccia
As I said in the introduction, I used the stand mixer this time, but even if we knead by hand the procedure does not change.
Pour the lukewarm water into a bowl, and dissolve the yeast, sugar, and oil in it.
At this point, start adding the flour, slowly, and when you have mixed about 500 grams, add the salt, which should always be added at the end.
This way it will not interfere with the yeast and sugar that are already starting to interact with each other.
Once the flour is finished, this dough will remain very hydrated. Especially if you knead by hand, don’t worry if it still sticks a bit to your fingers.
Sprinkle some flour on your hands and (if you haven’t used the mixer bowl or a bowl) and have worked the dough on a wooden board, transfer it to a bowl to let it rest for at least 6 hours, covering the container with plastic wrap.
After the rising period, the dough will have doubled and with lots of bubbles.
Oil your hands and retrieve it from the bowl to transfer it to the pan, which you have previously oiled well.
Once the dough is spread, pressing your fingers into it to create the classic focaccia holes, sprinkle the surface with the emulsion of the 20 g of oil, two fingers of water, and salt. I use fine salt and a little of it even if by procedure coarse salt should be used, but even though I’m Genoese and love focaccia, I don’t like feeling salt grains on top.
Let it rest for another hour in the pan. My pan measures 35 cm in diameter. I’m leaving you this information because if you spread it in a smaller pan, the focaccia will be even higher and maybe the cooking time might increase a little.
After the last resting time, we proceed to bake.
Oven static mode 180 degrees for about 40/45 minutes. Before turning off the oven, prick the focaccia with a toothpick to check that the inside is perfectly cooked.
Take it out of the oven and dive into this incredible softness
Storage and tips for a high and soft focaccia
The focaccia stays soft and tasty in a paper bread bag for two days.
If you want to revive it in its fragrance, put it back in the oven for a few minutes, it will be special.
Always respect a long rise of at least 7/8 hours and your focaccia will be very soft.
For a rise of 8/9 hours, I use type 1 or type 2 flour. These are strong flours like Manitoba that will be fine for leavening doughs.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Do you know what we call focaccia in Genoa? And how do we consume it? Here are some curiosities
The Genoese focaccia (or as we Ligurians call it FUGASSA) is a typical specialty of Ligurian cuisine, about an inch thick, golden in color and with well-marked cavities, it is distinguished because before the final rise it is brushed with an emulsion made of extra virgin olive oil, water, and coarse salt. I always use fine salt.
It can be consumed already at breakfast, as a “break fast” in the morning or as an appetizer-appetizer-aperitif.
It is traditionally accompanied with a small glass of white wine (or gianchetto (pronounced in Ligurian). In Liguria it is also more or less common to dip the focaccia in a cappuccino or milk as breakfast. Don’t be scandalized, it’s delicious
